1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a binding apparatus that bundles sequentially-supplied printed sheets into a plurality of sheaves of to-be-bundled sheets to bind the sheaves with glue or other adhesive together with a front cover, and an image formation system that automatically subjects printed sheets transferred from an image formation apparatus (e.g., printer, printing machine, copy machine) to a binding-finishing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, this type of apparatus has been widely used as a terminal apparatus of an image formation system (e.g., printer, printing machine) that functions as an automatic binding system in which sheets having thereon images are superposed in an order of pages to divide the sheets to a plurality of a set of to-be-bundled sheets to subsequently glue the end faces to bundle the end faces with a front cover sheet or that functions as a binding apparatus that divides printed sheets supplied from a paper supply opening to a set of to-be-bundled sheets to bind the to-be-bundled sheets with a front cover sheet. In particular, a system for providing an on-demand printing such as electronic publishing has been known in which a printing processing and a binding process are simultaneously performed by printing a predetermined document for example while subjecting the document to an automatic binding with a top cover to subsequently cut sheet ends to complete a booklet.
Japanese Unexamined Pat. App. Pub. No. 2004-209869 discloses an example of an apparatus in respect of a system as described above. This apparatus has a structure in which sheets outputted from an image formation system are subjected to an automatic binding finishing. According to Pat. App. Pub. No. 2004-209869, sheets are outputted from the image formation apparatus to a catch tray and the sheets in the catch tray are guided to a sheet carry-in route. Then, the guided sheets are accumulated in a placement tray at the downstream of this route. Thereafter, a sheet bundle accumulated in a horizontal direction in the placement tray is turned 90 degrees to be placed in a vertical direction. Then, the vertically-arranged sheet bundle is guided to a gluing apparatus in which the sheet bundle is subjected to a coating processing. This glued sheet bundle is folded together with a front cover sheet supplied from an inserter apparatus and the resultant bundle is bound. Thereafter, a not glued end face of this glued sheet bundle is cut and trimmed.
When the above binding process in the conventional system disclosed in JP Pat. App. Pub. No. 2004-209869 as described above is stopped due to a power shutdown for example, the above placement tray includes sheets in a disordered manner, sheets not yet adhered or bundled in a range from a sheet accumulation position to an adhesive-application position are retained by a transportation means (e.g., grip means), and sheets adhered in a bundle are left at the downstream of a coating position.
When a power source of the apparatus is accidentally stopped when printed sheets in a binding route are sequentially subjected to processes of accumulation, gluing, front-cover bind-on, sheet cutting, and ejected paper storage as described above, power shutdown during an error (e.g., paper jam) generally requires an operator to perform a recovery operation to manually take sheets left in the apparatus to subsequently recover the apparatus to an initial status to start the apparatus again. In order to make this recovery operation simpler, some copy machines have adopted a method to remove sheets causing a defect (e.g., jammed papers) to automatically eject sheets left in the apparatus when the apparatus is restarted.
However, when the above-described binding apparatus includes sheet bundles left in a disordered manner and the sheet bundles are removed by an operator or when the sheet bundles are automatically ejected at the restart of the apparatus, a risk is caused where sheets may be scattered in the apparatus. In the case where the apparatus is structured so that a binding process path is arranged in a vertical direction to grip and transport sheet bundles in a longitudinal direction in particular, sheets may be dropped and scattered in the apparatus when an operator cancels the grip of the sheets in order to remove the sheets left in the apparatus. In the case of an apparatus having another structure in which this sheet bundle is transported to a storage stacker when the apparatus is restarted on the other hand, a problem is caused in which sheet bundles may be scattered in the stacker.
In view of the above, it is a main objective of the present invention to provide a binding apparatus in which a sheet bundle left therein can be removed easily when the apparatus is stopped in the middle of a binding process to prevent a risk of scattered sheets.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a binding apparatus and an image formation system having a structure including a binding process path in a vertical direction by which a sheet bundle left in the route when the apparatus is interrupted can be removed depending on the status of the sheet bundle.